{"id":21201,"date":"2026-06-30T18:44:54","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T10:44:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/siriusxm-lofts-most-powerful-satellite-yet-on-falcon-9-built-by-intuitive-machines-subsidiary\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T18:44:54","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T10:44:54","slug":"siriusxm-lofts-most-powerful-satellite-yet-on-falcon-9-built-by-intuitive-machines-subsidiary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/siriusxm-lofts-most-powerful-satellite-yet-on-falcon-9-built-by-intuitive-machines-subsidiary\/","title":{"rendered":"SiriusXM Lofts Most Powerful Satellite Yet on Falcon 9, Built by Intuitive Machines Subsidiary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 occurred at 10:25 p.m. EDT, the opening of a four-hour window. The rocket flew an easterly trajectory after leaving the pad. The 45th Weather Squadron forecast an 80 percent chance of favorable weather at the window&#8217;s opening, improving to 90 percent as the night progressed, with meteorologists watching for interference from cumulus and anvil clouds.<\/p>\n<p>The mission used Falcon 9 booster B1085 on its 17th flight, having previously launched NASA&#8217;s Crew-9, RRT-1 for the U.S. Space Force, Firefly Aerospace&#8217;s Blue Ghost Mission 1, Fram2, SiriusXM&#8217;s SXM-10, the MTG-S1 weather satellite for Europe, EchoStar XXV, and nine Starlink missions. About 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1085 landed on the drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean, marking its 158th successful landing, tying the retired vessel Just Read the Instructions, now used for Starship operations.<\/p>\n<p>The SXM-11 satellite, weighing about 15,000 pounds, was deployed from the Falcon 9 upper stage a little more than half an hour after launch. It was manufactured by Lanteris Space Systems, a subsidiary of Texas-based Intuitive Machines. The company, formerly branded as Maxar Space Systems, was acquired by Intuitive Machines in January 2026 for about $800 million. SXM-11 is based on the IM-1300 satellite bus and spans 106 feet with its solar panels extended. SiriusXM said about 60 percent of the satellite&#8217;s mass comes from onboard fuel.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/storage.ghost.io\/c\/25\/cf\/25cf4884-2354-4613-946f-e1a2f604e025\/content\/images\/2026\/06\/siriusxm.jpeg\" class=\"kg-image\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"678\" height=\"960\" srcset=\"https:\/\/storage.ghost.io\/c\/25\/cf\/25cf4884-2354-4613-946f-e1a2f604e025\/content\/images\/size\/w600\/2026\/06\/siriusxm.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/storage.ghost.io\/c\/25\/cf\/25cf4884-2354-4613-946f-e1a2f604e025\/content\/images\/2026\/06\/siriusxm.jpeg 678w\"><figcaption><span style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">SXM-11 Satellite. Credit: SiriusXM<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The SXM-11 and SXM-12 satellites were built to replace SiriusXM&#8217;s XM-5 and Sirius FM-5 satellites, which launched in 2010 and 2009 respectively. SiriusXM described SXM-11 as the most powerful high-powered satellite in its fleet, stating it will help enhance signal reception, expand coverage in Alaska, and support the delivery of audio entertainment and information services across the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean. The launch was the 76th Falcon 9 flight of 2026.<\/p>\n<p>According to a financial disclosure SiriusXM filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, SXM-10, which launched in June 2025, is estimated to remain in service until 2040. SiriusXM said the SXM-11 launch followed years of planning, engineering, testing, and collaboration, and that the satellite would now begin its journey to orbit.<\/p>\n<p>SiriusXM has not stated a public timeline for the launch of the companion SXM-12 satellite, which was also built to refresh the constellation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 occurred at 10:25 p.m. EDT, the opening of a four-hour window. The rocket flew an easterly trajectory after leaving the pad. The 45th Weather Squadron forecast an 80 percent chance of favorable weather at the window&#8217;s opening, improving to 90 percent as the night progressed, with meteorologists watching for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21201"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}